Fit for Life

by Jennifer Butcher
Physical Education Teacher
Washington State School for the Blind

Editorís Note: Jennifer Butcher is an exemplary model
of the modern PE teacher. She is also a talented and well-informed speaker,
as demonstrated by this presentation that she made to parents at a recent seminar
sponsored by the National Organization of Parents of Blind Children (NOPBC).
Smart, young, attractive, energetic, creative--and blind--Jennifer wasted no
time getting to the point of her speech: PE is about movement, and everyone--blind
kids, too--can move! In keeping with the philosophy that ďdoingĒ is the best
way to learn, Jennifer engaged the audience in a little physical exercise to
dramatize her theme. After saying ďGood morning,Ē Jennifer moved from behind
the podium, sat facing the audience--feet flat on the floor in front of her,
arms to her sides, and proceeded to take us through a rigorous workout, while
we remained firmly seated in our chairs. Hereís an edited version of the workout
and the subsequent presentation Jennifer delivered to her attentive audience:

Good
morning. Weíre going to do a small activity because you guys need to move, and
because thatís my job--getting people to move. If youíre sitting really close
to someone spread out just a little tiny bit. Now, put your stuff on another
chair or under your chair.

What I want you to do is imagine you have a disability. I donít
care if itís vision impairment, one arm, one leg--just think of some kind of
disability that you might have as you do this exercise. Okay, so follow me.
Here we go. Weíre walking. [Feet move in walking motion as people remain seated].
So, does someone want to tell me where he or she wants to go? Anybody? Okay.
My kids usually want to go to Disneyland. But how are we going to get there?
I donít think weíre going to walk. Thatís pretty far away, so letís fly. Put
your arms out to the side, be careful--donít hit anyone in the face. Put your
feet flat on the ground. We are on a runway; so weíre going to move our feet
really fast until we get in the air. Are you ready? Here we go [feet move fast
as everyone pretends to be the plane moving down the runway]. Weíre going to
take off--feet in the air, arms out--and weíre going to fly--arms wave up and
down. Weíre flying. Here we go. Weíre flying. Itís kind of bumpy [begin bouncing
in the chair]. Thereís a lot of turbulence. Itís kind of bumpy [continue to
bounce, twist, arms wave up and down]. Okay, weíre getting ready to land. Ready!
Feet down! And they [the feet] go fast. We land. Okay.

When we go to Disneyland we like to go on rides. So weíre going
to go on a roller coaster, but it has really huge stairs that we have to climb
up--high knees, high stairs [knees and legs lifted up high as if climbing up
steep stairs]. Here we go. Weíre on the roller coaster. Itís one of those wooden
ones. So we go up and down, up and down, and around to the right, and around
to your left, and move all around [bob and twist torso around while remaining
seated]. Itís bumpy. Itís going, itís going--and it stops [stop movements].

Another place kids like to go is to the park. So letís walk
to the park. Here we go. Walk your feet. Oh my gosh! Thereís a huge dog chasing
us. Letís go. Run fast [feet move rapidly in running motion]. Letís go. Oh,
you see someone you know; wave to them. Oh, you see someone else you know; wave
with the other hand. Okay, we got rid of the dog. You can walk again. At the
park we like to play some volleyball. Put both hands up by your ears and letís
bump the ball up. Up and up. Itís a fastball. Itís a faster ball. Come on! Come
on! Okay [stop movements]. Now, we like to play some baseball. Hands together
on a bat and bat the ball. Bat the ball on both sides--first on your right,
then your left. Letís work on our coordination--right, left. Okay, now letís
throw the ball. Throw the ball at me; throw it. Okay.

Now, letís go to McDonalds. We have our food, and guess what
we do? We have a food fight! So, throw the food. Thatís it; throw it, throw
it, throw it. Oh, the managerís so mad at us. Heís going to make us clean it
up. Put the rag in your hand and wash the walls. Wash the ceiling. Wash the
floor. Okay. Now walk again, and come to a stop. [The workout is over. Jennifer
returns to the head table and proceeds with her presentation.]

This is just one example of a fun physical activity you can
do with children. They donít have to be able to see anything. They donít have
to be able to walk or run anywhere, but theyíre moving, arenít they? And that
is the main part of my job--to make it fun for kids to move. In fact, itís more
than a job to me; itís my passion.

I believe that physical exercise, recreation, and sports are
vital to blind and visually impaired kids. The first reason is obviously the
physical reason. I donít need to preach to you about what exercise does for
your body. It helps your heart, it helps your lungs, and it gives you the energy
to do what you need to do every day. Blind kids need to move and be physical
active for the same health reasons that everyone else needs to move--thereís
no difference.

But there are other benefits, too, and ones that I think are
especially important for blind and visually impaired kids. Athletics, sports,
and recreation can give you lifetime skills that are transferable to other aspects
of your life; skills that can help you become successful socially and professionally.

I have been an athlete for seventeen years. I have been a competitive
swimmer since the age of seven, before my vision started going bad. (My vision
began going bad in grade school and I reached the legal blindness stage in late
high school. Finally, in college, my visual impairment was diagnosed as Stargardtís.)
But I didnít stop swimming. I didnít stop competing. Regular competitions or
Para-Olympics, for me the competitiveness goes on. What I learned as an athlete
throughout my life gives me the confidence and ability to stand here today.
Iím a certified (and employed) teacher with a bachelorís and masterís degree
because of the lessons I learned as an athlete.

First, I learned the value of motivation. After I lost a significant
amount of my vision, there were so many times that I wanted to quit. ďWhy do
I have to do this? Itís not fair. Everyone else can see. I canít even tell whoís
in front of me. I canít see the chalk board.Ē But athletics gave me something
to live for; it gave me lots of reasons to not give up. Athletics also gave
me the energy and endurance to handle the headaches, learning to do things differently,
and the frustration when people didnít understand my visual loss.

Athletics also taught me perseverance. When you do sports or compete in athletics
you learn to hang in there; you learn to keep going. There are many obstacles
blind kids will face in life because of blindness or attitudes about blindness.
Perseverance can help them overcome those obstacles. Athletics is a good way
to acquire and practice perseverance.

I learned goal setting from athletic competition. Thatís what
lifeís all about. Thatís how you succeed. You set goals. You achieve them. You
set more goals. You achieve them. I set goals for a bachelorís degree. I achieved
that. I set goals for a masterís degree. I achieved that. I learned goal setting
in athletics, then transferred the skill into my daily life.

But most of all, through athletics I developed positive self-esteem.
Having a visual impairment can really make you wonder how you fit into the rest
of the world. This world is very oriented toward the sighted. Itís especially
hard for kids to figure out how they fit in. Being an athlete and accomplishing
your goals and succeeding makes you feel good about yourself. It gives you a
purpose. Makes you feel worthwhile. Ten thousand people watched me compete in
swimming at the Para-Olympics where I won a bronze medal. Talk about a self-esteem
builder. It was amazing.

So, thatís the importance of fitness, of athletics. Now, how
can you help your visually impaired kids or students get moving? Let me start
by describing my experiences as a PE teacher at the Washington State School
for the Blind.

When I came to work at the Washington State School for the Blind
I knew I had a hard, challenging job ahead of me. Most of the kids were overweight
and most of them didnít move. I heard rumors that they all hated PE--ďIím not
going into that class. Theyíll throw a ball at my face and itís going to hit
me and itís going to break my nose.Ē Those fears were so deep that I knew that
something drastic had to be done.

I began by first giving all the students some fitness tests.
I used the national YMCA fitness test and the Brockport fitness test (which
is designed for children with disabilities) and I came up with these results.
Of the sixty-one students that I tested, fifty-four percent had a body fat percentage
above a healthy limit. Seventy-six percent scored below the good standard for
muscular strength. Sixty-five percent were below standard for flexibility. Forty-eight
percent were below standard for abdominal strength, and ninety-one percent were
below a good standard for cardiovascular endurance.

So, these statistics told me that these kids are at risk for
obesity and for a variety of health-threatening diseases. These kids had too
much fat mass. This didnít mean they were all fat on the outside--itís not what
you look like on the outside, itís whatís in the inside. Itís about fat mass
around the arteries, around the muscles. You can be the skinniest person on
the earth and have the highest body fat percentage. These kids needed to gain
muscle mass, and lose fat mass. They needed to start moving! To do this, I needed
to overcome their stereotypes about PE, and I needed to make moving FUN!

So what we did at the Washington State School for the Blind
was to create the Fit for Life Program. Itís a PE class, but it isnít. Itís
more like a health club. We have treadmills, stationary bikes, a swimming pool,
and a gym--anything that you would find at a fitness club. When the kids come
to me, I ask them, ďWhat are you interested in?Ē If a kid likes to run, but
doesnít want to run with a human guide on a track, I put them on the treadmill.
I show them how to use it and how to monitor their heart rate. If another kid
wants to play basketball, I say, ďOkay, this is a basketball. This is how itís
really played, now letís figure out how you can play it.Ē They learn to run
and dribble the ball, make shots. They may not be able to compete in a regulation
basketball game, but they are moving, building up muscle mass, and having fun.

In the Fit for Life Program we begin with finding out what kind
of physical activities each kid enjoys, because if he or she doesnít enjoy it,
he or she will not take responsibility for it, and will not do it. Once I find
out what the kids like, I teach them how to access, monitor, and perform the
activity. Now they love coming to PE class. They still have to dress-out, do
stretching routines, do sit-ups, and things like that--but itís okay because
we do it in a fun environment. Weíve created a non-threatening ďmovementĒ environment.

I took statistics at the end of the year just to see if the
program was working. We found that twenty-nine percent of all students improved
their body fat percentage. This may not seem like much improvement, but when
you consider that it can takes years to change body fat percentage, I think
this is pretty good. Sixty-nine percent increased in muscular strength, fifty-seven
percent increased in flexibility, sixty-five percent increased in abdominal
strength, and forty-nine percent increased in cardiovascular endurance.

So, the statistics show it is working, and the attitudes tell
me that it will keep working. No longer do we have the ďI hate PEĒ attitudes.
We donít even call it PE anymore. Itís ďFitness Time;Ē itís very social, very
movement oriented, and itís a lot of fun.

Thatís what we do at the Washington School for the Blind. So,
what can you do with your kids? When parents and educators ask me what sports
or recreation blind kids can do, or how they can get blind students interested,
I tell them to do the four Es: expose, excite, explore, and engage.

The first ďEĒ is expose--expose your kids to physical activity. It doesnít matter
what it is; expose them to everything--basketball, swimming, soccer, wrestling--you
name it. Most of us can watch games on TV and learn about the game, but what
about the kid who canít see it? They need you to explain whatís going on, explain
the rules, show them, and let them try it. Your kid may not care, but that doesnít
matter--do it anyway. They have to be exposed to lots of things before they
can find something that is exciting to them.

Which brings us to the second ďE,Ē get them excited. Show excitement
yourself, and nurture the interest your kids show in an activity. If your kid
likes to play in the water, follow up on it. That interest can turn into excitement
and excitement can lead to swimming lessons, and maybe even competitive swimming.
So first expose them, then excite them.

The third ďEĒ is explore. Explore ways to adapt this activity
so your kid can participate to the fullest extent possible. This isnít as hard
as you may think. Some activities need little or no adaptations and some need
a lot. There is no one single way to adapt an activity, either. Your child may
need a different adaptation than another blind or visually impaired child doing
the same thing. Be creative. Problem-solve. Donít stop if the first thing you
try doesnít work. Keep trying until you find something that works. Thatís how
you adapt things. Thereís no magical answer. There are specific rules regarding
adaptations for certain competitive sports, but until your child gets to that
point, thereís no need to follow rigid rules and guidelines. Your kids just
need to explore and experience.

The fourth ďEĒ is engage. Engage your kids in a variety of activities
at many different levels. Get them to move, play with other kids from school
or the neighborhood. Get them involved in local clubs and organizations. Join
the United States Association of Blind Athletes (USABA). They have affiliate
chapters all around the country. They can help your child develop the skills
needed to become a better athlete, to become a better person. Sign your kids
up for a summer sports camp. There are sports camps all around the nation--regular
sports camps, sports camps for blind kids, and sports camps for disabled kids.
We are very fortunate at the Washington School for the Blind in that we won
a grant to have our first-ever blind sports camp on campus this summer. So,
engage--find ways to make recreation a part of your childís routine life.

So, those are the four ďEs.Ē There is one more thing I think
you need to do--help your kid find a hero. Sighted adults and kids have lots
of possible sports heroes. Whoís the blind athleteís hero? Who can be a role
model for your kid? There are many athletes out there who have visual impairments
who have accomplished many things--find them.

Iím really fortunate that I get to be a role model for the kids
that I teach. I just say, ďThis is really good for you.Ē And, you know what?
They go do it because they respect me. If I say a blind or visually impaired
kid can do something, they know itís true because Iím visually impaired, Iíve
gone through the training, and I know what it takes. I didnít win my bronze
medal by chance. I worked for it. I teach them how they can work for things,
too.

To summarize, remember to implement the four ďEsĒ--expose, excite,
explore, engage--find some blind athlete role models/heroes, but whatever you
doÖget your blind kids moving!